Review and Guide – Dumoad Smart Strip Advanced Paint Remover

When I began the year-long painting competition to spruce up my old Orks, I ran into a problem.  Some of the Orks had been painted DECADES ago, their paint incredibly firm.  Furthermore, they were painted according to the old “Dipping” method, which encased the minis in a thick coat of actual floor varnish.

Suffice it to say, they were extremely resistant to my usual methods of stripping.  Isopropanol, Simple Green, and L.A.’s Totally Awesome bounced off, barely making a dent.  Pewter minis were less resistant, but plastic, especially larger minis such as Trukks showed almost no effect.  Not even a week-long soak helped the most stubborn Trukk.

After some research, I stumbled upon Dumoad brand Smart Strip Advanced Paint remover.

My first obstacle when using this product was the lid; the packaging recommends using a coin as a lever to open it, but I found I needed to use two screwdrivers the first time.  It was exceedingly stubborn.

Afterwards, inside, I found a white paste, slightly more viscous than Elmer’s Glue.  I used this to strip some of the more stubborn minis.  However, the case study for this guide will be my Ork Trukk painted in an Evil Sunz scheme:

The first step was coating the Trukk in the goo, a process that was extremely messy due to the nooks and crannies on the model.  Afterwards, I stored the Trukk in a gallon ziploc bag to keep the stripping compound from drying out.

Side note: the paintbrush I used to apply the Smart Strip actually improved in functionality, as it had accumulated years of paint residue near the handle!

After a day, I rinsed the Smart Strip off.  This took a deal of scrubbing with an old toothbrush and a pipecleaner for narrow areas.  After allowing the Trukk to dry, this was the result:

A decent amount of paint and varnish were removed, but there was still some left.  Based on my experiences stripping smaller models, I decided to repeat the process.

It became clear that repeated applications put undue stress on the plastic parts.  Many pieces fell off or partially broke.  Despite this, I did one final application:

The bonus of the weakening of the glue bonds let me pop off some pieces to get stubborn areas clean.  After drying, I used tweezers to scrape off parts of the paint that had peeled away but were still in contact with the Trukk.  This is the final result.  Enough paint removed that a fresh coat should cover up most of the worst of what is left.

Overall, I would classify the stripping ability of Dumoad Super Strip as good.  It’s not a miracle, but it is effective, especially for stubborn minis.  This should be your stripping agent of choice for minis with old paint jobs, or other circumstances like floor varnish.  Pewter minis hardly need something this powerful, so it may be a bit overkill, but it also works well in that case.

Next: This Trukk gets painted and I learn what surprise mini will be the challenge for September!